GreenBlu begins SETO award to market new desalination technology

US-based water technology company GreenBlu has initiated an award from the US Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) to commercialise its new thermal distillation technology.

The $1.6m grant will be used to advance the new Vapor Adsorption Distillation with Energy Recycling (VADER) technology. GreenBlu intends to develop a prototype of the commercial product.

VADER leverages a nanocomposite adsorbent to boost energy efficiency and overcome the top brine limit. It is also said to facilitate zero-liquid-discharge (ZLD) desalination and water treatment.

The firm noted that the desalination technology is designed to recycle latent adsorption energy and is calculated to significantly decrease electricity consumption as well as triple thermal energy efficiency.

GreenBlu plans to use the technology to reduce the cost of zero-carbon desalination, ZLD wastewater treatment and seawater mineral recovery.

GreenBlu CEO and co-founder Howard Yuh said: “The SETO award will allow us to build a prototype proving not only the efficacy of our new distillation method, but also that desalination can be free from drawbacks.”

Existing desalination methods are completely electrically-powered or utilise both electricity and thermal energy. Such techniques are said to be expensive, have carbon emissions and discharge brine.

GreenBlu expects that its carbon-free, heat-powered and grid-independent desalination products will offer an alternative for the current methods.

The new VADER desalination technology can be used for a distributed desalination network, to increase output from existing facilities and offer sustainable magnesium.

The product is said to have the capability of recovering magnesium chloride and sodium chloride salts from seawater as well as waste brine.

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